Slice of the pie: Salary-cap numbers for projected Bears starters

As we roll toward the opening of free agency this evening there isn’t quite the anticipation there was a year ago when the Bears had a handful of players entering the open market. The action started with the team doing what it could to keep wide receiver Bernard Berrian. When that mission failed, the Bears put the squeeze on linebacker Lance Briggs, getting him to return at their price while some key role players (who were missed last season) departed in special teamer Brendon Ayanbadejo and tight end John Gilmore.

There just won’t be that kind of drama this weekend, at least not that we see right now peering into our crystal ball. A phone call to Miss Cleo might confirm our hunch. It’s important as we move forward to take stock of where the team is right now with the salary cap. We’ve reviewed the information when it comes to the 2009 salary cap, which was referenced in this story today, and have the cap numbers for projected starters. This provides an idea how the Bears have budgeted and where they’re at. It’s similar in many ways to how the money was distributed last season.

Brian Urlacher has the highest cap figure on the team at $10,185,505. In fact, Urlacher combined with Tommie Harris at $9,090,000 come in at $19,275,505, a little less than $3 million shy of the projected offensive starters as a whole. That was one of the questions we wanted to get to with general manager Jerry Angelo last weekend in Indianapolis–would he do the Urlacher $18 million extension over again given the chance? We fell short in that mission and that’s a question for another day and a post for another day as well. Here are the numbers:

Salary cap figures for projected 2009 starters

Offense

WR Devin Hester $6,885,833

C Olin Kreutz $4,133,333

TE Desmond Clark $2,174,446

LT Chris Williams $1,883,530

WR Rashied Davis $1,581,666

RG Roberto Garza $1,565,000

QB Kyle Orton $1,420,000

FB Jason McKie $995,000

RB Matt Forte $775,613

LG Josh Beekman $565,405

Right tackle ?

Total $21,979,826

Defense

MLB Brian Urlacher $10,185,505

DT Tommie Harris $9,090,000

WLB Lance Briggs $6,766,666

DE Adewale Ogunleye $6,465,576

CB Nathan Vasher $4,866,666 or CB Corey Graham $504,655

CB Charles Tillman $4,716,666

DE Alex Brown $2,884,594

DT Anthony Adams $1,087,500

SS Kevin Payne $504,780

FS Craig Steltz $503,756

SLB Nick Roach $460,000

Total with Vasher $47,531,709

Total with Graham $43,169,698